Winwood part 2: Applying his concepts to your playing

When you transcribe and study a solo from a favorite player, you want to absorb and apply what you learned from them to make it a part of your personal musical vocabulary. This way you don’t only need to be playing that specific song to wield the influence of your musical mentor. So let’s apply what we learned in last month’s column about Steve Winwood to more general playing.

When you transcribe and study a solo from a favorite player, you want to absorb and apply what you learned from them to make it a part of your personal musical vocabulary. This way you don’t only need to be playing that specific song to wield the influence of your musical mentor. So let’s apply what we learned in last month’s column about Steve Winwood to more general playing.

The Notes and Scales

Steve Winwood used a pretty basic vocabulary of note choices and scales, as shown below in Example 1 (click the image to enlarge). In the key of C these would be:

Each scale/grouping of notes has its own sound and flavor, and you want to limit yourself to specific groupings rather than try to merge them all into one super-scale (1, 2, b3, 3, 4, b5, 5, 6, b7). That doesn’t work as well - you want to create memorable melodic licks, not just “run the scale”.

There are so many ways to play licks like these: try varying the rhythms from eight notes to triplets, mix up the length of the notes for more rhythmic interest, and try starting the phrase on different beats within the measure so they cross over the barline in different ways. As a synth player you’ll want to incorporate bends and modulation into the phrases; be sure to try both half-step, whole-step, and larger bends, and work on slides up into and fall-offs from notes as well. Most important? Learn then in all 12 keys!

Using The Licks in Songs

To put this into practice you want to try various chord progressions or songs, and like Winwood (and others) just play licks in the key center, instead of trying to outline each chord specifically. Example 6 (below) gives you a few ideas to get you started: note that this works well for both major and minor key centers.

One of the lessons we learned last month was that Winwood never played the traditional blues scale on the I chord in the key (the C major chord in these examples). He always seemed to save those extra bluesy licks for another chord in the song, which keeps the feeling more major and melodic, saving the soulful color for just the right moment.So in the first progression try using the C blues scale once in a while on the Dm chord, or the opening F chord. In the second example try it on the F chord, and so on. Just don’t overdo it… a little goes a long way.

More Expression

Winwood also shared that he used a pedal to control filter cutoff, and you can clearly hear his lead tone change quality at different points in a solo. Starting off a little bit darker and opening up the filter as you build your solo works well. So does adding some filter cutoff modulation from the Mod Wheel to your usual vibrato, as I have written about before.Using a volume pedal/assignable pedal controlling MIDI CC 11 (expression) is a great addition, so you can swell into long sustained notes, and push more energy into a phrase, just as a horn player would.

Having spent the last few months covering scales and modes so we can share a common language when describing note choices, let’s put that knowledge to practical use. When we started this column. I got a lot of requests to analyze the ingredients and styles of famous players’ solos. Steve Winwood is a top request, so let's take a look inside his synth soloing and cop his chops!

I’ve saved the broadest application of a scale to a chord for last, because it is often used as a jumping-off point for taking a solo—from the most basic and “inside” playing to very advanced and sometimes seemingly atonal excursions. This month we explore some of the many applications of the Pentatonic scale for your synth and keyboard soloing. This lesson includes a ZIP file of downloadable sheet music PDFs so you can play along.

Looking back over the columns I’ve written for the past two and a half years (wow, tempus fugit), I’ve made some assumptions about note choices, scales, modes and the relationship of notes to chords in general. While these concepts have been and are covered in other Keyboard articles, I’d like to share my take on this very important subject. We can then move into analyzing specific players, their solos, and styles of playing.

As a supplement to our August 2015 cover story, Steve Porcaro and David Paich related the backstory of creating their famous synth break from Toto’s mega-hit “Rosanna.” Downloadable transcription included!

Adding some blues licks to a solo is a sure way to connect to your audience, and for many genres of music is the essential vocabulary you should be drawing from. But did you know that there’s more than one blues scale? Read on!

This month I explore and celebrate the sadly departed T Lavitz. T came out of the University of Miami jazz department (we were classmates together) and joined jazz-fusion rockers the (Dixie) Dregs, sharing their most successful years as a band.

This month, we conclude our study of master synth soloist Jan Hammer. His earlier playing, such as in the Mahavishnu Orchestra, was his most adventurous in terms of note choices. This was the height of the “fusion” era, before he moved into his more signature guitar-emulation sound. Going back to those recordings affords us some good examples of how to apply “outside” note choices and poly-chordal concepts.